Dear Casper Community:
As I write this, I’m approaching 2 weeks since my appointment as the new CTO for Casper Association. A few days ago, a community member asked me to outline what I’ve worked on these first 2 weeks, and what my impression of the project is as a result.
Not only is this a fair question, but indeed a good idea! So here goes.
First off, let me clearly state that I am part of an amazing team that is firing on all cylinders. While I’m happy to own any criticism, any and all successes are truly a team effort. Secondly, from Day 1 I have made my commitment to radical transparency and community participation crystal clear. At the same time, below I may refer to initiatives that are in progress, without giving away all details or naming counter-parties. When I don’t disclose those details, assume it is for two reasons only:
- I also committed to no more “over-promising and under-delivering”. As a community, you should be able to take information you get from the project, and me, to the proverbial bank. So I will not “pre-announce” partnerships or launches before I am 100% confident that they will happen.
- It is in the entire community’s benefit that any launch or partnership can be effectively marketed. This cannot be done if announcements are not properly timed, potential media are lined up, partners are coordinated and social channels are fully leveraged.
What have I been up to?
To say it’s been a whirlwind is probably an understatement. I’ve come in with very clear priorities that I’ve been laser focused on executing:
- Deliver the technology
- Enable mass market use cases on Casper Network
- Rebuild and activate the community
- Decentralized Governance
Most of what I’ve been focused on these past 2 weeks can be categorized into one or multiple of these buckets. In a response to the community’s request for transparency on my activity so far, below is a detailed accounting of much of it.
Deliver the technology
For better or worse, Casper core protocol development has been a responsibility shared between two entities, Casper Association and Casper Labs, for much of its history. Aspirationally, the Casper Association was always the guardian of the technology, the protocol and the public network, and Casper Labs, a for-profit enterprise-software company at its core, was a subcontractor to the Casper Association that provided much of the software development of the Casper protocol on a work-for-hire basis. In reality, much of the product strategy and execution was exclusively decided on the Casper Labs side of this equation, and because as a for-profit organization Casper Labs has to continuously weigh and balance its priorities, these priorities did not always match those of the Casper Association. To put things bluntly, a blockchain core development team can only function optimally when it’s pursuing a single unified goal - the best product-market-fit for its core blockchain technology in the broadest sense of the word. In a scenario where multiple goals are pursued, such as core protocol development AND multiple standalone enterprise projects, execution will inevitably suffer. Alongside my appointment as Casper Association’s new CTO, we announced that we have assumed the full responsibility for the development of Casper’s core technology going forward. This will now allow us to focus all efforts and resources on pursuing our holy grail - making Casper Network the most attractive blockchain technology for mass market use cases.
Much of my first two weeks involved work relating to this reorganization of resources, as well as implementing new and improved processes around product delivery. Below is a comprehensive list of activities in that area:
- Personnel issues ((re)hiring, firing, transitioning personnel between entities, transitioning responsibilities between personnel, one-on-one meetings with much of the team, etc.)
- Full day in-person meeting in California with Ed Hastings, the Head of Engineering of the Casper core development team
- Meetings with the Project Management team regarding updated product development methodology, tooling, processes and reporting
- Optimize new Daily Core Team stand-up meeting protocols
- Review and determine scope of initial release of Condor (Casper 2.0.0)
- Create policy around release-based versioning, semantic versioning, backlog management
- Re-establish network testing program
- Review/negotiate vendor agreements
- Migrate DevOps responsibilities to new team members
- Migrate JS SDK development responsibilities to new team members
- Review and re-prioritize R&D team activities, including ZK and L2 related work
- Focus Developer Relations efforts on completion of updated developer/operator documentation, Condor release notes and Condor overviews
Enable mass use cases on Casper Network
For much of the time since genesis, the sole focus of Casper Network was on enterprise use cases. While very valid and full of massive potential, the promise of blockchain extends well beyond enterprise applications only. We have a very solid technological foundation to support many more use cases, such as Decentralized Finance, gaming and tokenization, and have strong arguments to make about why we can be an attractive development target for those verticals. Leveraging our strong foundation and combining it with our ability to execute in an nimble and agile fashion, we also see opportunities to optimize host-side (native) functionality that further empowers specific use cases in the future. In the meantime, from Day One I started having in-depth conversations with all our current DeFi developers and projects, in order to ensure I understand their priorities, their challenges and their needs, with the intention of tackling their challenges and serving their needs as Casper Association CTO. I am also convening a DeFi Workgroup, in which I hope to bring together many of these parties, in order to jointly align on priorities as well as effective execution on the deliverables we collectively identify. Below is a high level overview of the types of conversations I’ve been having:
- One of one conversations with current DeFi developers, bridges, swaps, exchanges and on-ramps
- Conversations with new bridges yet to be announced
- Conversations around L2 protocols
- Kicked off the DeFi Workgroup project, assigned a dedicated project manager, and working on preparing the first meeting
- Explore on-chain gaming initiative
- Reviewed and revised the approach to Condor-support in our SDKs so that downstream impact is minimized
Rebuild and activate the Community
The success of a public, open-source, decentralized technology project is closely tied to the vibrancy of its community. Casper over the years has built a very impressive and loyal following, and at the same time we can do a whole lot better in the way that we engage with our community. This project belongs to ALL of us - whether one is a core-engineer, validator, app developer, or delegator - we collectively ensure the resiliency of the protocol, the impact of the technology and the public perception of this journey we’ve taken on together. This notion has not always been the guiding principle for Casper. My strong and unmovable belief is that it should and will be going forward. From day one, I have professed a spirit of radical transparency and a commitment to no “over-promising and under-delivering” - when you receive a communication from a formal source representing the project, you should be able to take it to the proverbial bank. It is in this spirit that I’ve started engaging with the community upon my appointment, and it is what I expect from all my co-workers. As I hope you can tell from my public conversations, I don’t shy away from tough questions, I welcome them - as long as we all have the best interest of our collective project in mind, divergent opinions and critical thought can only positively impact our outcomes. My community-related activities in the past 2 weeks have included:
- An immediate open-ended, no holds barred AMA with the community on Telegram
- Daily presence and participation in all public forums for Casper
- The establishment of a Casper Governance Forum, where important topics, proposals and critical opinions can be aired, discussed and broad community consensus can be formed.
- A review and revision of the formal community management guidelines
- One of one meetings with many developers/projects in our ecosystem
- Meeting with Casper’s early supporters (pre-mainnet)
- The formation of a DeFi Workgroup, where all active stakeholders will collaboratively identify gaps in our ecosystem, and agree on how (and who is) to tackle them. A project manager has been assigned, and the date for a first gathering will soon be announced.
- The establishment of a recurring Validator call, where Casper Validators can receive updates from, and directly interact with the core development team regarding the protocol, node operations and upcoming changes. The date for a first gathering will soon be announced.
- Together with marketing and community management, established a predictable calendar for community events going forward (X space, DeFi calls, Validator calls), which will be published soon
- With the help of the MAKE team, build and launch the official CSPR.fans Telegram App, which paired with an initial reward of 1MM CSPR to be allocated on Casper’s 6th birthday (October 31st, 2024), has breathed new life into our community. As I write this, the app has been live for 6 days, and here are some of the highlights:
- Over 100,000 users in the app
- Over 20,000 users who have connected their wallets
- Our main Telegram group has grown by over 30%
- Our X following has grown by many thousands
- The ecosystem projects that have had rewarded tasks featured have collectively seen tens of thousands of new users/followers
- On-chain tasks have started this week and are seeing good initial uptake
- Preliminary indicators are that the community sentiment has taken a pretty rapid turn for the better, and we’re only just beginning.
Decentralized Governance
In as much as a decentralized blockchain project has to have a strong community, a community project cannot do without a good measure of decentralized governance. To date, the Casper project has been very centrally governed. History of the multiple core entities aside, it is one of my core principles coming into this role that we can and must do much better. First steps certainly include the measures already put into place the last couple weeks: the governance focused forum, the DeFi workgroup, the soon-to-be kicked-off recurring Validator calls, and the continuous feedback loop through active engagement with the Casper community. But none of that is true governance, in the sense that even with the best intentions, feedback/input via forums and chats are not binding on a legal entity such as the Casper Association. We are in the process of finalizing a plan that, when put in place, would set Casper on a path of true decentralized governance that will be highly innovative in the public layer-1 blockchain space. In this area, I have focused on the following:
- Instituted the governance-focused forum
- Finalized and published a proposal for new program parameters of the Incentivized Casper Testnet Program, which is now actively being discussed by the Testnet Validators on the forum.
- Meetings with the Casper Association board, executives and Swiss legal advisors regarding the legal, regulatory and operational details and execution of the aforementioned decentralization plan.
Professional Reflection
In my years as a technology executive I have worked with many engineering teams and overseen hundreds of engineers. I can honestly say that the core engineering team at Casper is one of the most capable, most dedicated and most professional groups I have worked with over the past 3 decades. Given the chance to focus on execution and delivery, and within a framework that enables that, I have little doubt that this team can deliver on Casper’s ambitions as leading level 1 blockchain, and put in place the critical components and features that will enable the mass market use cases we as a collective (you, me, the team, the community) are after.
Overall, the entire team is unified in its sense of purpose, and welcomes any changes I have proposed to the way we do things (and, thankfully and very importantly, also tells me when they don’t!). Similarly, our dedicated ecosystem partners have been amazing, and the sense of renewed excitement amongst them is palpable.
We have big ambitions, and we realize that we have to regain trust and prove ourselves, and we are stoked and driven to deliver!
Personal Reflection
As many may know or could have deduced from my social presence - I am Jewish. The fifteen million Jews around the world celebrate the Jewish New Year this Thursday and Friday (I will be off and away from my keyboard 
). Traditionally, the Jewish New Year is a time of reflection on the year past, a time of introspection on decisions and actions we have taken the previous year, and a time of renewal, of new chances. I see many parallels between this, and where we are in the Casper project. We are at an inflection point. A time of introspection, but most definitely, a time of renewal and new beginnings. The past is there to learn from, the future is ours to shape. On a personal level I am massively driven to contribute my part in making the next year of this project one to reflect on with pride, accomplishment and gratitude this time next year. I am grateful to all of you for being part of this collective journey.
Looking forward to hearing from you all! And to those who also celebrate: Happy New Year!
Michael.
PS. With thanks to LANCE 
for the inspiration to share this reflection.
